Do you own a business or are responsible for one? If yes, how do you manage it?
By updating and sharing the same old spreadsheets and word documents or using multiple tools and applications that confuse you all together?
Irrespective of whether you run a small or large business, its management involves several operations like product development, manufacture, sales, distribution, marketing, service, customer support, cost estimations, budgeting, and the list goes on.
Don’t you need help with that? This is where enterprise business management software comes in.
Now, what exactly is an enterprise business management software, and what are its top features? Read to find out.
What is business management software?
Business management software is a combination of various computer applications and tools to manage different areas of business like staff, finance, sales, distribution, manufacturing, inventory, marketing, etc.
Software may be either a single management solution or a system of multiple applications. They take care of all your day-to-day business processes through automation so that you can focus more on other important tasks.
There are different kinds of business management software based on their business functions. Some of them are:
- Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP)
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Business Process Management (BPM)
- Content Management System (CMS)
- Product Information Management (PIM)
- Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
- Supply Chain Management (SCM) and so on.
What are the features of business management software?
Choosing software depends on various factors like your business size, industry type, budget, etc. Here are the top 10 features that every enterprise business management software should have.
Project management
A business involves several projects managed by various teams and managers. You, your project managers, staff, and other stakeholders need to stay up-to-date with the project’s progress. A good business management tool has various project management features in it.
Project management involves lots of features like task management, time tracking, team collaboration, file sharing, viewing Gantt charts, communication tools, scheduling meetings, calendars, project timelines, workflows, and many more.
Resource management
There are two aspects of resource management – human resource management and managing data related to projects, finances, marketing, sales, etc. Human resource management involves database management of employee-related information like their personal details, designation, contact, department, salary, working hours, bonuses, etc.
While working on any project or business operation, you and your staff always need to access one or the other data. These are project documents and files, financial reports, marketing resources, sales numbers, customer information, etc. Look for software that allows easy data access and document sharing.
Automation
No matter which industry you are from, your business will always have a bunch of tedious recurring tasks like order entry, salary calculation, accounting, billing, invoicing, generating reports, etc. With automation, you can reduce the time and energy of your employees giving them time to focus on other important tasks.
Apart from saving time and energy, automation reduces human error. With boring repetitive tasks, humans are bound to make mistakes and this will affect your business. Automation increases accuracy in all your business operations making your business more reliable and efficient.
Integration
No matter how perfect your enterprise business management software is, there will always be scope for some external tools and applications to add. And that is why integration with other third-party applications is an important feature that you will need.
For example, the software that you use to analyze and generate reports may not have the feature to store the necessary data. If it can be integrated with your database software, your software can analyze data across all departments and generate their performance reports.
Data analysis and reporting
All your data of your projects, marketing, sales, products, distribution, profits, losses, margins, finances, is of no use if you and your staff are not able to use them to grow your business. And the best way to do that is to analyze your performances in various business areas.
Data analysis is further useful when it generates reports, statistics, and estimations. This will help you to track your growth, performance and gives you insights as to in which areas you should make the necessary changes.
Sales and marketing
What good are your products and services if you cannot sell them to anyone? To sell your products, you need to market them. And you need tools to do that.
Sales features include storing and contacting customers and clients, order placement and processing, shipping and tracking orders, generating sales invoices, processing payments, etc.
To plan and execute marketing activities, you need to analyze data on customer preferences, sales trends, sales history, etc. Also, you need tools to manage various marketing-related resources.
Accounting
How can you run a business without managing your money? Financial management includes critical functions like settling accounts, processing payments, generating bills and invoices, managing taxes, budgeting, cost estimations, converting currencies, etc.
You need to maintain 100% accuracy with such critical processes. If your business management solution has all the accounting features, you can manage every aspect of your finances and expenses. With your computer application taking care of your accounting, you reduce human error.
Tracking
How would you know if your products have been manufactured, the finished goods have been supplied and raw materials have been procured? This is why tracking is an important feature that every enterprise business management software should have.
Tracking not only involves tracking your products and their distribution. It involves tracking and tracing various information like sales, production statistics, productivity, performances, and other sets of such data.
User experience
No matter how good your business management software is, it is not much of a use if your employees are not able to use it properly. The software should have a simple, intuitive, straightforward, and easy-to-use interface. Your employees should be able to use it without much training.
With a bad user interface, your employees get confused and waste time figuring out the software’s usage. This will just reduce their productivity that in turn dips your business growth.
Security
Your system holds all your financial details, customer’s details, confidential product design details, payment and account numbers, etc. What good is software that holds all these critical data if it is not able to keep them safe? Your software should be safe from all possible data leaks and hacking attacks.
Data protection is an important feature that enterprise management software should have. It should have multiple levels of firewalls to protect your business data.
Conclusion
Although there are many business management tools out there, you need to pick the right one for your business.
You might get overwhelmed or confused with the various features they offer. To make sure that you don’t end up missing the important ones, we have given you the top 10 features for every enterprise business software.
Worksleader powers your business with a comprehensive business management solution. Connect with us to know all that you need to skyrocket the growth of your B2B business.
